Now with some experience under my belt at actually reading this thing, I've learned a few things about how to make it 'perform' better for me ... Please feel free to share other ideas here!

Audio controls: The audio interface is a bit frustrating. Hopefully Adobe will get this to run a bit smoother in future versions of the reader. You've probably learned by now that the play/pause control has to be clicked very ... sloo .. ooow ... ly before it will respond to your input. (At least that's what I've found, and I have a very fast computer here, so that's not the trouble.) But once you get used to clicking with a pause, it works fine.

Video resizing: The video window always pops up at the top right corner. Acrobat doesn't give me any better control than that. But once it is up there, you can move it to wherever you want. And, you can resize it, by dragging down the lower right corner. If you are viewing the streaming version, this won't help you a lot, because you won't get any better resolution, but if you have the CD-based version, you can pull it larger, sit back, and see the videos at a reasonable level of enlargement. This resizing also works while in full-screen mode.

Browsing: Acrobat Reader provides a number of ways to advance pages: of course with the arrow keys (either the L/R pair, or the U/D pair), with the Page Down/Page Up keys on your keyboard, and (on most systems) with the space bar (to go to the next page), and Shift-Space (to go to the previous page). There are probably more ways I haven't found yet ...

Full screen: This is a blast ... I can't get enough of it! Not only is it easier to read, but the overall impact is just so much more vivid. And the page transitions are smoother too (on my system, anyway), as Acrobat 'draws' the page in the background before displaying it, so we don't get that progressive build-up of components on the displayed page.

The 'breadcrumbs': This display up in the top left of every page is not just for information - letting you know where you are - but is 'hot' (all but the final link in each chain, which is of course the page you are already on.) I have found this is the easiest way to jump somewhere - just hit the 'Contents' link at the top left, and then select the desired page from the full Table of Contents that then displays. This is - for me - easier than manipulating the mouse over the Navigation link in the bottom bar.

Tue Oct 06, 2009 5:41 am

Tom Kristensen

Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:14 pmPosts: 21

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

OK Dave, here is my initial reaction to the book. Download went fine, unzipped the book no problem. Looks great, reads well. I get a standard pdf which opens up in mac Preview 3.0.9 2007. No problem, I can read the book.

I notice that I need Acrobat 9 to enjoy the media rich content. Went to try and download the reader and couldn't get it to stick to my computer - macbook Pro - something firefox is objecting to - whatever, I'm not feeling geeky enough to sort it out. Which is why I was always more keen on the cd version rather than a streamed version, I'm not the kind of guy who can be bothered customising my computer to make a piece of web design run smoothly - especially if this upsets other applications. That's just me, if my mac cant deal with it I don't want to be re-engineering my system to enjoy some widget. I know this is all simple stuff for people who are in full control of the computer - but most of us are just driving around and if the car breaks down we got no idea what's goes on under the hood.

So... Bring on the cd I say.

Sat Oct 10, 2009 12:39 am

David Bull

Site Admin

Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:30 pmPosts: 194Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

Oops! Um ... Tom, I have bad news for you. The download version and the CD version are identical - except for where the media comes from (off the internet, off the disc). They both work properly only in Adobe Reader 9. (I thought I had explained this pretty thoroughly on the book description page.)

Reader 9 was new a while back, but now seems to be settling down as the 'standard' version, so I felt that it was time to go ahead with this project. As long as your computer is no more than a few years old, there really shouldn't be any reason why you can't install that version ...

Anyway, if you don't have 9, it's not going to work. (So what I'll do when the CDs are being mailed out is stuff an extra one in the envelope to you - with just the raw audio and video files on it - so that you can play them back with any media player you like (QuickTime, VLC, WindowsMediaPlayer, etc.))

Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:34 am

Tom Kristensen

Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:14 pmPosts: 21

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

Dave, I'm sure you have explained everything perfectly - but reading the instructions is not my forte, when they start talking about eye protection and steel-capped boots I tend to just plug the machine in and see what happens. I think I might tackle Acrobat 9 again. Can't be that hard.

Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:54 am

David Bull

Site Admin

Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:30 pmPosts: 194Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

Quote:

I think I might tackle Acrobat 9 again. Can't be that hard.

I think so ... No eye-protection necessary!

But I have to say, that my feelings on the kind of attitude you describe have changed in recent years. I too, used to be one of those guys who felt that all these safety rules, etc. etc. were getting a bit out of hand. "We didn't need all that sort of stuff in the old days, and we did just fine!"

But I've been to too many funerals in recent years. Funerals that - quite probably - didn't have to come perhaps so early. How many printers have to die of exactly the same things - stomach cancer and lung disease - before we start to put two and two together? Perhaps it might not be a bad idea to ventilate the workshop when you're putting mica dust on hundreds of prints. Perhaps it might not be such a good idea to use so much formaldehyde in the moistening water that your eyes water while you are doing it ...

Anyway, I hope you get the Reader installed OK; without audio and video, the book is kind of 'empty' ...

Sat Oct 10, 2009 2:15 am

Tom Kristensen

Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 2:14 pmPosts: 21

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

Yeah, actually I am quite safety conscious, its just the blurb that I skip over. I do wear ear protection and often wear a dust mask, eye protection if there is a risk of flying metal. As for solvents, I am totally paranoid - which is why i like making Japanese prints - no need for anything risky.

Hey good news on the Acrobat 9, after carefully matching the download with my OS version the whole thing unpacked no problem, so I am all set to enjoy the widgets. Interestingly, when asked if I wanted Acrobat to be my default reader I was unable to proceed unless I ticked the NO box, which means there is a tussle going on somewhere in my computer.

Sat Oct 10, 2009 2:31 am

Annie Bissett

Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2009 11:12 pmPosts: 4

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

I didn't have Adobe Reader 9 installed either, and I had to upgrade the operating system on my Macbook Pro one level in order to use it, which I hate to do because it inevitably affects something else that I really don't want to deal with... On it goes. But I held my breath and did it -- so far so good -- cuz I really wanted to see this book! Glad I did. It's awesome in Full Screen mode.

Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:56 pm

David Bull

Site Admin

Joined: Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:30 pmPosts: 194Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

Look at this! The two people who have started taking part in this 'support' forum ... Tom and Annie. Among all the hundreds of people over on the [Baren] group who now know about this little book of mine, if I had to think of the people who need this the least, you two would be high on that list!

I'm very glad that you haven't found it to be demeaning in any way to be 'caught' reading a book called 'Your First Print'. It's obviously a measure of your confidence in your own printmaking abilities, that you share the feeling that 'all knowledge is good knowledge', and you just want to be part of it!

Thanks for coming over!

If I didn't mention it anywhere else here (or in the book) I would like to emphasize it now - this place isn't intended to be a 'Dave the Guru' type of forum, with me sitting here on the mountain-top dispensing 'wisdom' to supplicants. When a question is posed, or a point brought up, anybody and everybody are encouraged to share their own experiences and knowledge.

One over-riding consideration of mine while setting this thing up, is to try and find a way to make the knowledge and experience findable later. That has turned out to be a major short-coming of our [Baren] group; it is sometimes a lot of fun to be part of, but the sheer volume of the historical discussions, and their randomness, has made it nearly impossible to go back and extract information on any particular point. Even Google is next to no help with that. Time will tell if the approach here - divided into topics and (hopefully) carefully titled - will be any more successful ... We'll see!

Mon Oct 12, 2009 10:47 pm

Julio Rodriguez

Joined: Sat Sep 26, 2009 9:18 amPosts: 12

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

Dave,

Besides the keyboard options available, I just used the mouse (L/R buttons) to navigate the pages back & forth.....very efficient.

Thu Oct 15, 2009 9:59 pm

Ray Nault

Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 2:25 pmPosts: 9

Re: The Hanshita TIF

Hello David,

I have finally taken my courage with both hands and am trying to follow you step by step through the process. However, I cannot open the hanshita file. It reads as code, as perhaps it should, but when I extract it, well...it does not open in Adobe 9, Explorer, etc.

I am referring to the downloaded version.

With the CD version, I have been able to print it out;however, saving it to desktop, the same problemoccurs as with the other version: it gives me a decodermessage with reference to Adobe 9.

The sample image is stored as a 'Tiff' file - with a .tif extension. This is an image format, and will need to be opened in software that understands that format. Here on my Mac, we have the built-in 'Preview' program, or of course anything like Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, etc. I have no experience with a Windows machine, but am sure that there is some kind of image viewing software built into the OS. Perhaps another of the readers can chime in here to suggest something for that case?

Sat Nov 28, 2009 9:49 am

Ray Nault

Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 2:25 pmPosts: 9

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

Thanks David,

Hopefully in the future my questions will be more hands on. I just converted from tif. to pdf. and ... it works now.

Thanks for your time and attention. Now to make this hanshita. Looks like I have to go to Seikaido tomorrow!!!

Ray

Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:04 am

Ray Nault

Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 2:25 pmPosts: 9

Re: Tips and Hints on using the eBook ...

David -

...has made it nearly impossible to go back and extract information on any particular point. Even Google is next to no help with that

Actually there is a way to do that and I will get back to you on whereto go.

Ray

Sat Nov 28, 2009 10:06 am

Ray Nault

Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2009 2:25 pmPosts: 9

Web archive

I do not know how successful this will be,but this has worked for me before. Myfriend says, however, that their scansof sites can appear to be random, soinformation may drop through the cyber-cracks.

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